Resin Of Earth - Party Maintenance, Traversal, Earthenware Surgical Tools (Patreon)

A long while ago I posted some screencaps of a mocked-up project that involved leading a group through a strange landscape by examining the various markings on their skin that appeared magically or religiously or spiritually, etc etc. I was not intending to directly pull from that same idea but there must be something to it that has stuck with me because I have somewhat redeployed it in Resin Of Earth, except now instead of passively noting the bodily qualities of the party members the player is in charge of regulating the functions of a recently grafted bodily device.

As you see in the above video clip, a hand lifts a shirt and what is revealed looks like an assemblage of small earthenware crafts set in the soft part of a torso. This is part of the process of the geochemical initiation I mentioned in the last post and elsewhere. Parts of the assemblage will malfunction over time or else need to be tinkered with depending on the status of the party and your location/elevation.

I still have to flesh out the interface and write instructions for the different parts and what they mean. I had some trouble setting up the scene because I couldn’t really decide on a good angle, but I think I like what I have now.

I’ve also done some work to make the exploration and discovery elements of Resin Of Earth a bit more visually interesting. I didn’t like that there wasn’t really something breaking up the act of traversing back and forth to and fro in the sidescrolling sections, so I put in a way to interact with chamber-like areas that have a first person perspective. I think this does some to create more of a sense of space that you don’t get from either the sidescrolling portions of the game where you are wandering up and down corridors but cannot really see much of the level besides the backdrop or the more focused examination mode where you are interacting with/looking at/licking the subject of interest that is in front of you/your party.

For instance, this is the outside of the mall, where you are at in the very beginning of the game. It’s not shown in this gif but from here you can enter the mall or you can go inspect a sign that details the mall’s condemnation/warns of the danger of entering a mall that has mysteriously and nearly inexplicably sunken halfway into the earth.

This is a mock-up I made just when I was sketching out design ideas and went and labeled just to make it a little more illustrative for you all. I think a lot about what makes exploring in videogames interesting vs what doesn’t. It’s very interesting to me coming up with solutions for the 2D games I make. Although 3D first-person games are probably the most visually analagous games we have to being subjects looking out at the world through two eyes in our head, sometimes I feel like they don’t do exploration and discovery in more abstract ways, or at least I feel that way.

I was speaking of sidescrolling portions being just backdrops but I will say I have had fun in making them. Because the game is dark, and you really only ever see what is illumined by the beam of your flashlight, there can be some work I do that doesn’t necessarily translate 100% in game. But I think it looks good!

Anyway, I am currently very hard at work! I feel like there are two boosts in inspiration/motivation when making a game and that is right at the start as ideas start becoming more concrete on screen and then after everything in the game starts interlinking and all of the various systems put in place start operating together. Definitely that latter bit of inspiration has kicked in the past week or so.

I hope you all are doing well and are excited as I am. Like I have said again and again about this project there is a lot more to the world of the game than what I am showing but I think also a lot of the game works by how much is hidden in it. There are definite twists and turns. As always please let me knwo if you have any questions or comments, in the comments box below or via message on Patreon. We’re also on discord if you have not yet joined our server. Come hang out! Again thank you so much for your continued support, it means the world to me that you all consider my stuff worth taking interest in. Thank you!

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